“It’s now clear that the Government’s unwillingness to properly fund London’s police services is compromising the Met’s ability to keep Londoners safe.

“With the Met already subjected to government cuts of over £700 million, and a further £325 million of savings to find, we’re seeing our police services under a level of strain we haven’t seen before.

“London has not escaped the national increase in serious violence, but we cannot solely leave it to our under-resourced police force to confront this intolerable rise. It’s time for all hands on deck. We need every section of the community – not least families, schools, and the police – coming together to tackle this abhorrent trend. The collective message has to be that we cannot, and we will not, stand by and watch as more lives are destroyed.

“The bottom line is we need police officers in place to carry out law enforcement, the Government cannot continue to abdicate their responsibility to give London’s police the funding they need to make this happen.